From Resilience to Survivance: The Life Journey of Justine Whitegull Archer

Abstract

This research study focused on the impact of settler colonialism, specifically as it relates to women who respond through heartwork, caring for tribal communities in response to the targeting of tribal community members through the disruption of traditional Indigenous roles. This was accomplished by: identifying resilience factors shared by Elders and family members in response to colonialism; examining resilience in the face of 21st-century social issues faced by Justine Whitegull Archer in her leadership and advocacy role; and finally analyzing the research findings to explore possible pathways and frameworks for moving from resilience to survivance. This research study uses a storytelling narrative and reflexive ethnography grounded in a Wažookį (family) worldview. Within an overarching refusal paradigm, a desire-based lens and framework served as a depathologizing approach, informing the transition from resilience to survivance. Through Indigenous research methods and methodology, emerging concepts included those related to Ho-Chunk ancestry, such as generational kinship networks and reciprocity, as well as Indigenous matriarchal concepts of egalitarianism and traditional Indigenous roles. The implications are that the use of Indigenous Ancestral Knowledges obtained through relationships with Elders and familial knowledge, interpreted through desire-based frameworks, can lead to the identification of tribal-specific resilience factors. The intent of this research study is to use identified resilience factors within carceral systems at micro-, mezzo-, and macro-levels.